Review: Naked Chicken Chips from Taco Bell
Earlier this year, Taco Bell released the Naked Chicken Chalupa and I found it to be kind of average, but not because of its innovative Naked Chicken shell. The latest extension of the Naked Chicken family are new Naked Chicken Chips, now available for a limited time only.
Taco Bell’s cringe-worthy description of new Naked Chicken Chips:
Time to get schooled in the fine art of dipping. Thanks to the all-new Naked Chicken Chips, you and your taste buds will get a graduate level crash course in both the theory and practicality of just how enlightening dipping can be. So order up some of these crispy triangles of marinated all-white-meat chicken, grab hold of that warm nacho cheese sauce and just go for it… literally rip it and dip it as many times as you’d like because you need to master the material. And before you know it, you’ll be leading the weekly lecture in your favorite Taco Bell restaurant booth, successfully defending your thesis on the benefits of double dipping while rocking a pretty sweet sport coat with leather elbow patches. It could totally happen.
So basically Naked Chicken Chips are Taco Bell’s version of chicken nuggets. Let’s review:
The texture of new Naked Chicken Chips felt a bit softer than my experience with the Naked Chicken Chalupa shell. Aren’t chips supposed to be crunchy? They are triangle-shaped so I guess that’s the similarity to some chips. I found the breading to be seasoned well enough to enjoy without the warm nacho cheese sauce, but that clearly wasn’t going to happen.
Flavor-wise, Naked Chicken Chips taste like your standard chicken nuggets… a combo of chicken stock, salt and pepper… plus there’s a little extra bite of spice. It’s nothing significant, but there is a mild peppery kick. Each is meaty enough, but doesn’t come off as one of the more quality nugget offerings in the fast food world. I’d compare the quality to Wendy’s or Burger King. The moisture level was just right and I experienced no dried-out morsels in the 12-pack portion I purchased. I will point out though that they are a bit oily. Each was a very uniform, cookie-cutter triangle so the consistency was easy to get right. 
In terms of value, it’s difficult not to compare Naked Chicken Chips to other fast food nuggets. Considering that this a brand new product, I won’t be too hard on them. The 12-pack comes with two nacho cheese dipping sauces and it set me back $4.29 in Maryland… the suggested price is $3.99. The 6-pack was priced at $2.29 at my local Taco Bell and it comes with one nacho cheese dipping sauce. I might be in the minority here, but I found that two nacho cheese dipping sauces for the 12-pack wasn’t necessary.
Taco Bell’s entry into fast food nuggets turned out to be sort of average. My expectations weren’t too high going in to be perfectly honest…. this is a good thing. This is Taco Bell’s zesty chicken nugget offering and it’s a nice option to have on the menu to add to the variety. In the end, Naked Chicken Chips are an interesting name for something that isn’t all that interesting.
Pros: A chicken nugget option at Taco Bell. A little spice is nice. Nacho cheese dipping sauce.
Cons: Texture was too soft for my liking. A little greasy.
Taste: 6.00/10
Value: 5.75/10
Grubbing on-the-go: 6.25/10
Price: $2.29 for 6, $4.29 for 12
Overall GrubGrade: 6.00/10
More Info: tacobell.com
Nutrition Facts:
12-pack
Calories - 780
Fat - 49 grams
Saturated Fat - 7 grams
Cholesterol - 105 milligrams
Sodium - 2210 milligrams
Carbs - 58 grams
Fiber - 3 grams
Sugars - 2 grams
Protein - 28 grams
Categories: Chicken, Reviews
Tags: Naked Chicken Chips, Taco Bell, Taco Bell Naked Chicken Chips, Taco Bell Naked Chicken Chips Review
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Really liked these, glad they still have the zesty breading. I agree they give too much cheese sauce but then I have leftover cheese sauce for my other items and that’s great.
Tasty, satisfying, but the nacho cheese sauce is too much. They need a thinner sauce, something not so rich.
Had these last week, probably will never again
I had these a few days ago and liked them. Taco Bell didn’t reinvent the wheel with these, but like you said, they’re similar to Burger King nuggs. I’ll probably get them a few more times, seeing as fast food chucken nuggets are my weakness. And getting chicken nuggets/chips and a burrito in the same place is a sweet deal to me.
I’ve tried them a couple of times, and I also liked the Naked Chicken Chalupa, though I find these and the Chalupa to be a bit spicy, and I don’t like spicy things. Still they are good for what they are. The chips taste better to me with sour cream and I have my local TB give me sour cream with them.
Hi Brian – Have you tried a mild sauce packet into your sour cream? Makes it extra tasty without making it spicy.
I usually put mild sauce on tacos when I am in the restaurant itself, but I have surprisngly found Ortega Medium and Mild sauces taste pretty good on TB stuff. I miss Salsa Verde though. The bottled version of it sold in stores tastes different than the packet stuff. I am hoping it reappears at TB locations in the near future.
I agree with you. I also miss the Verde salsa (and yes, the bottle of green tomatillo salsa I bought in a store seemed different). I prefer my Taco Bell food with actual salsa or picante sauce rather than the packets of chili powder water known as Mild and Hot sauce. Personally, I keep Pace picante sauce in my fridge and put it on all of my Taco Bell take out. (Taco Bell offers Salsa del Sol picante sauce in packets, but they refer to it as breakfast salsa and prefer not to hand it out outside of breakfast hours.)
Not bad pricing…I love melted nacho cheese….bad for you but tastes great especially when drenched over fries. I wish Taco Bell had some sort of Mexican fries to go with their combos instead of tortilla chips.
Other countries have fries, but not America. C’mon, we’re the country of fries!
They’re testing Nacho Fries in certain places right now.
Awesome news! That is why I always feel not satisfied eating at TB unless you eat like a sour cream, avocado or bean filled burrito. Something about fries with food satisfies. Like a coke with fast food.
I tried them last week, and thought they were okay…nothing special. The nacho cheese is a poor choice for the dipping sauce, and I wish there were more offerings. I’m thinking of trying again, and seeing if they’ll sub the cheese for something else…maybe avocado ranch.
Looks like the comments section likes them more than you do! 🙂
I really liked these. One of Taco Bell’s best LTOs recently. Better than the Chalupa version. Fairly priced, too.
If you don’t enjoy spicy things, these will likely be too spicy for you. I threw out half my order, they were just too spicy for me. It’s too bad, because I liked them other than that.
That’s interesting because I didn’t find them spicy at all. Then again, I like spice, so maybe that’s why I didn’t taste anything.
This was one of the worst products I have ever had in my life, they were so bad I ate one and gave the rest away. Taco Bell is usually pretty solid with their offerings, this was not one of them.
Can someone tell me what the naked actually refers to? Doesn’t make any sense to me.
Never thought of it but you are right.
Naked Chicken Chalupa was because it was missing the outer shell. This is simply Naked Chicken as a continuation of that line of products. You can say it is missing the chip if you really want.
It refers to the “chicken chips” being made the same as the Naked Chicken Chalupa.
I liked these they taste good and are a good value
These are terrible
Thank you for highlighting that terrible marketing copy description from Taco Bell corporate. Hilarious! I can tell they had a tough job trying to talk about chicken nuggets in an interesting way. Its like they let a drunk freshman intern who thinks (s)he’s overly-clever have the keyboard. Or I guess somebody in marketing thought it’d be good to capitalize on “graduation season” with some academia buzzwords. Ugh. Cringe-worthy indeed!
The cheese sauce didn’t really work with the chicken. Fortunetely I went to a KFC Taco Bell and ordered these, potato wedges, and a thing of FLG sauce. The cheese was great with the wedges and the FLG sauce was great on the chicken.
^This was a genius move.
Pro tip — mix in taco sauce with the cheese sauce. Delicious.
Bought them for my kids and they couldn’t eat them or the cheese due to the spice. I ended up throwing them and a chicken quesadilla out.
Technically just triangular version of the same processed chicken u can get from any other fast food joint. But yes they have a little spice